a thank you to two people who are retiring

2. UVic’s Hester Lessard and UBC’s Susan
Boyd are both retiring from their positions
this year.
Smart people have pointed out to me that
waiting for retirements to celebrate & thank
people can be a mistake on many levels.
Still, hey do offer a handy moment if you
forgot before. They might also be a good
time to just want to do it again.
Both Hester and Susan will no doubt be
feted by their close (geographically &
otherwise) colleagues and friends – but one
of the features of the Canadian feminist
legal academy is that it is relatively small
and interconnected. There are people at
every school in this country who have been
taught by these women and have learned
from their work and their example
With that in mind, we’ve gathered up a small
set of notes about and for Hester and
Susan. Thanks to all who contributed, and
the comments (moderated) are available for
those who want to put in their two cents.
A very happy retirement from the formal
work world to both – don’t be strangers.
-SL

3. Hester and Susan were both such
formative influences for me in
figuring out what it meant to be
both a legal academic and a
feminist.
They epitomize for me the very
finest work in legal education and
scholarship - relentlessly brave,
articulate, rigorous and
compassionate.
Their mentorship and friendship
have been wonderful gifts.
Lisa Philipps

4. My personal experience and
enduring image of Hester Lessard
- an unwaveringly principled and
brilliant academic, grace and
dignity personified, deeply
committed to social justice,
author of profound and eloquent
contributions to Canadian
feminist legal scholarship.
Shelley Gavigan

5. Susan Boyd taught me feminist
legal theory, family law, and
advanced family law at UBC’s
faculty of law in the mid-1990s. She
was a fabulous teacher:
considerate, careful, and deliberate.
More than that, though, she was an
outstanding mentor when I was a
junior colleague. Her office was
beside mine and she served as a
model for how to be a diligent
academic.
Kim Brooks

6. To be in Hester’s world is a remarkable thing. And so I visit
often. I teach Hester’s jurisdictional justice in Health Law. I
teach Hester’s context-stripping in Public Law. I return to
Hester again and again for the construction of health care
and the ideology of the private. Hester, you write the
things I want to mean. Thank you.
Joanna Erdman

7. Despite the fact that I have never been taught by Susan or Hester,
never shared an institution with either, each has been a very real part
of my (continued) exploration of how to be an [Cdn, Feminist, Legal]
academic. Susan’s attention to how to bring together academics,
students, and others with shared interests, how to create and be a
part of feminist community that goes beyond our own institutions,
continues to inspire. Hester’s writing and insistence on setting things
into a larger context is a constant source of proof that looking at
appellate cases – as long as that isn’t the only thing you see – can be
deeply illuminating. One, the other, or both, taught and mentored so
many of my academic friends. And both, in different
times/ways/places have shown me great generosity – some of which
I’m really only now beginning to recognize and, I hope, honour.
Sonia Lawrence

8. Susan Boyd is one of the most
insightful and giving people I have
ever met. Since my very first day as a
Masters student at UBC ( and she
wasn't even my supervisor) Susan
has offered me hands on guidance,
advice and even editing!
Her boundless energy for feminist
scholarship and her students inspires
me constantly, and I hope to be able
to give as much over my career as
she has during hers. Academically
she is a hard act to follow, such
influential and smart work over such
a long period of time is something to
aspire to.
I hope her retirement means we get
to hang out together more.
Angela Cameron

9. So much of Hester Lessard’s work has been influential, but for me, one
of her most significant contributions is the feminist, social justice lens
she brings to division of powers analysis. “Jurisdictional justice,
democracy and the story of Insite" (19 Constitutional Forum 2010)
caused me to think about democracy and the division of powers in
new ways. It should be mandatory reading for students and teachers
of Canadian constitutional law.
Debra Parkes

10. I was one of a generation of feminist
graduate students from around the world
mentored by Susan Boyd. She wrote
reference letters, shared SSHRC
applications, attracted feminists
internationally to UBC and ensured we
met them (often at gatherings at her
home with Claire Young), and inspired and
supported so many of us to embrace an
academic path and to use it for positive
social change.
Jennifer Koshan

11. I met Hester Lessard in the early 2000s,
although of course her work was familiar
to me well before that. What I most
admire about Hester is her ability to
hang tight to how law intersects with
people’s lived reality. At the core of her
work is the question, “why does this
matter on the ground”. She couples
that commitment with a firm belief in
the value of democratic dialogue. If you
haven’t been able to get a sense of
Hester, you can listen to her excellent
2011/12 Marlee Kline lecture in social
justice here
Kim Brooks

12. Susan Boyd is a lustrous presence in Canada's legal feminist legal
academy. We all bask in the glow and reap the rewards from her
illustrious career and her dedicated and inspirational mentorship
to students, colleagues, and a generation of young feminist legal
academics. One marvels at her capacity to share joy and delight
in life and work and to find reason for hope and optimism - even
when that work brought her hard struggles, resistance, and
heartbreaking child custody cases. Everyone who has worked or
studied with Susan Boyd has been touched by and benefitted
from her warmth, openness, and generosity of spirit. Through
her leadership as Chair of Feminist Legal Studies at UBC, she
fostered and built a vibrant community of feminist legal scholars
and scholarship, a community that transcends borders and
regions - an enduring, unalterable and noble legacy of which
she can be justly proud.
Shelley Gavigan

13. Hester Lessard is a brilliant
constitutional thinker and writer
whose rigorous analyses of
equality rights and social justice
set the high water mark for
scholars like me. She is also a
generous mentor, and helped
make my sabbatical in New York
a truly memorable experience
for me and my budding-artist
daughter.
Jennifer Koshan

14. Buss on Boyd
Susan Boyd co-supervised my LL.M. thesis at UBC in the
1990s, and I have stayed in touch with her, and her
extensive scholarship, ever since. As a supervisor,
Susan taught me many things, but two in particular
always stand out for me. The first was about writing.
Susan graciously invited me to contribute a chapter
from my then still evolving LL. M. thesis to her edited
collection Challenging the Public/Private Divide
(University of Toronto Press, 1997). In the process of
preparing the chapter, Susan worked with me again and
again (and again) revising drafts. I learned a lot about
academic writing (and analysis) through Susan’s patient,
thorough, and kind editing.
In hindsight, and this relates to my second ‘take away’,
the whole time Susan was carefully helping me edit my
chapter, I now realize she was also swamped with her
own teaching, research, book preparations (and
managing other chapter contributors!), as well as
supervising various graduate and LL.B. students. As my
colleagues from UBC will know, Susan was also a
community builder and she fostered a lively, collegial
environment among faculty and many, many students.
Now that I find myself as a (senior??) academic, I realize
just how many different demands Susan was juggling,
and how much extra work she took on. But even with
that enormous workload, Susan never made me feel I
was unworthy of her time, or taking her away from
other important matters. She was always open,
supportive and available. I can’t say that I have lived up
to that standard myself, but I hold onto it as a model to
guide me and to which I daily aspire.
Doris Buss

15. Hester is one of the most generous, intelligent
women I have ever met. I worked for her as a
research assistant while I was a doctoral student
at UVic.
I was constantly amazed at how insightful she
was, how she could always see the big picture,
the system in every project she undertook. At
the same time she had the ability to make you
feel like you were making a HUGE contribution,
even when all you were doing was checking
footnotes. I truly hope that I am like her as a
professor and mentor, and I often ask myself the
Hester 'big picture' question when I am mired in
minute details.
Angela Cameron

16. Being taught family law by
feminist superhero Susan Boyd
was a highlight of my
education at UBC Law. The
political became personal for
me when, at the end of third
year, I came out as a lesbian.
Ten years after that, when I
became a mother, the legal
rights I enjoyed were those
that Susan had been fighting
for when I was in that family
law class. Very few of us will
have a career with such impact
on law and society.
Debra Parkes